And as time went on why of course graduating from high school in 1927 there wasn't many jobs around Frederick you could make any money on. And my family couldn't afford me or anybody else to go to college because things was tight. And after finishing high school and I found out that I could do well in the Navy. Well, in the meantime my father died in 1925, I was 15 years old. And I knew that my sisters and my brother suddenly needed support and my mother. And I couldn't get a job. Well, there weren't any available in those days. So I went away in the Navy and (indiscernible) to volunteer and I sent all my money back to my mother to help out. And in 1931 was the time I had four years investment, in 1931 why I felt I would like to be a state police officer. So I made application and as a result of that I came back to Frederick and took the examination and fortunately I got the job in 1932. And there I served for 21 years in the Maryland State Police.

And then my good friend Donald B. Rice became mayor of the city of Frederick in '51 and he came to me and asked me to come to Frederick to reorganize the police department or head the police department up. And of course I was -- well, I was just on the way up I thought in the State Police, I was a detective sergeant working in the bureau, investigating bureau, and as a result of that why it was a long, hard decision to make because I knew about the Frederick City Police Department being a resident of the community. And I knew that you served at the pleasure of the mayor. And I was going from a permanent position under the merit system to a not merit system but it was a challenge. So Mr. Rice, mayor, kept prevailing and I came here. My first wife, Freida, was a nurse at the Frederick Memorial Hospital. She did not want me to do this because of the permanency of the job and she knew the ramifications. So anyway, I came here.
 

But anyway, I knew it was a big challenge and it was one in which of course during that time on State Police I was doing well. I was a barrack commander down at Easton on the Eastern Shore and then I came to Frederick here as a barrack commander here in Frederick. And then later on I must have been doing pretty well, I had been advanced to headquarters in charge of the investigating bureau. So there is where I left that job and came here to Frederick in 1952.

And of course it was a challenge because the police officers were not trained, they had bad uniforms, they had -- they had the revolvers were one in which I had to get rid of very quickly because they were all corroded up and so forth and so on. But anyway, however, we got over that hump pretty good. And as time went on why there was some -- the people -- well, they didn't care for me too much because I was too strict I think. And they weren't people that -- they were political appointments until I came here. But a new mayor came in, the police force went out. And if you weren't on the side of the police department or the mayor's agenda, why you were out as a police officer. So we were able to go down to the Maryland legislature and there get a mandate that we would have a merit system. And that was the only way to go at that time. And we began a -- and then the next thing that happened to me was that in 1954 I was invited to go to the FBI Academy and the National Academy. This is a different -- the National Academy is one in where they train -- the same kind of training that the FBI each of themselves get, but they train police officers throughout the country. And I went there and for the six months, and when we came back from there why of course I set up a training school and I learned a lot about human relations and so forth and so on. These are during the days of J. Edgar Hoover, a tough guy, a good guy. And I studied hard, worked hard, and still ran the police department from the academy down in Quantico. And I used to come back every evening. I could have stayed down there but I drove back and in the morning go down there. Because I felt I had an obligation to the city of Frederick because I was employed by them. And they would furnish me lodging and so forth and so on. But anyway, I could have stayed at the academy at Quantico but I felt an obligation to come back each evening and see what's going on and go down early in the morning. And fortunately Mr. J. Edgar Hoover gave me the pat on the back and said that I had achieved all the things and had the best notebook in the whole academy, which was very nice.

And he was absolutely a very personal guy. He'd come in -- well, when he was in town he would be in -- he'd drive down there every morning, and he knew everybody and there were 71 of us in the class. And he knew every person in that class by their first and middle name and he'd call you so, every day. But -- not everyday, but when he was in town. So it made a big impression on me. And we had the finest instructors that I have ever known.

And then I came back to Frederick and of course I had to finish up the school and set up a training school here in Frederick of which the city of Frederick did not play fair with me because I had to do it with very limited money. But anyway, we got it done. And then of course that was in '54.

And then at that time it was a fellow by the name of Jim Grove who was the postmaster here in Frederick, he felt that we ought to have a Little League here in Frederick and he got that formed. And we started the first Little League in Frederick County. And it's still going now.
 

In the beginning -- it's a very interesting thing. Mr. Staley's son, it's named the Robert B. Memorial Stadium because his son was killed in an automobile accident and he was a player, and Mr. Staley -- and we got the $4,000 to buy that property, and then at the ceremony of Donald B. Rice when he was here as the mayor we had the check for $4,000, and because the son being killed in an automobile accident he gave us the check back and then named it the Robert B. Memorial Stadium. Did you know that?
 

And I went to the Rice family and the Rice family again, Ken, Donald B. Rice, Jr., and Jimmy Rice and Ken Rice and Mary Rice, the mother is still living. In the meantime Donald Rice died. And we thought something ought to be done for him. So I went to all these boys and I got some money together and that building down there now is named the Donald B. Rice building and $40,000 for that, we put it by the building because we wanted the Little League to keep on going. So okay. That's much -- the Little League a lot of it (indiscernible). I felt that we must reach the small -- the children, because in my first marriage I had no children and I am a very dedicated religious person. And Freida, my dear wife Freida is gone now, we went to the alter of our church, the Calvary Methodist Church and there we knelt to give our service to God and to do what we could for the community. And that's how it is I started off with a big bang with all these charity things that I've done in my life.

Okay. Now we're coming up to on the rest of the community. Of course I am advantaged, but I must say this, I'm positive I had an advantage over anybody that could have come here, not because of my ability, only because that I happen to be a resident of the city of Frederick, I grew up on West South Street, and we just were around the corner from Ice Street where the -- and Saint's Street where all those problems are going on and I happen to know all these young people, played with them as a young boy, fought with them, argued with them. And I -- that was my advantage.
 

And how -- how we got into the case was this: That the Metropolitan police, Washington, D.C. and the FBI came here to Frederick looking for a lady by the name of Pearl Putne (phonetic sp.). Now Pearl Putne was a very prominent person in Washington, a socialite in Washington, D.C., and she was missing. And her brother was an international lawyer and a very prominent person in Washington, D.C. And they couldn't find her, and her brother as I say was a lawyer, he came here, or they came here looking for her. And all the furniture was taken out of their house and thought they could get a clue by finding out where the furniture might be. And then they were checking all surrounding areas, Prince George's County, Carroll County, and Frederick County, and so forth, wherever they had storage areas. And we weren't able to find any of the furniture in Frederick. But it was very peculiar circumstances. This guy was -- always went to the Francis Scott Key Hotel for his meals, he lived at the Francis Scott Key Hotel and quite unusual circumstances. And he went to church here in Frederick, he would always give a $20 bill and write his name on it, very unusual. And after they left here and we couldn't find any furniture or anything about it, it was very intriguing.

It was myself and my staff we talked this thing over. We were able to establish that he had a child but it was a mongoloid child, and he -- let me get my mind together here. Then we went down to Washington, D.C. to Children's Hospital. There we found that this child had been taken from the hospital because he was going to take this child to the specialist in Florida. And they couldn't -- but no one could see, no one found out anything about this child, missing child now. And then it was very peculiar of all the $20 bills he put in the collection plate and so on.

And he then told the people at the church that he -- a dog had saved his life in Korea and he was going out there to bury the dog at a dog cemetery, which is in back of Roy Rogers on the Golden Mile. And I pursued that theme and thought about it a great deal and I went out to the owner of the place and there I -- he told me where the dog had been buried or about. So we dug it up and there we found human bones not dog bones.

And then we got on his trail and he was picked up in Las Vegas and I -- we went out to Las Vegas and they taped a conversation with him in jail. And then later on why of course he came back to Frederick and we came back to Frederick and the grand jury didn't indict him. About a year later they found the body of Mrs. Putne. (End of tape 1, side B.) And that was -- then the California authorities came here to see me, and I of course denied I had anything to do with the investigation out there, but you see in the state of California instead of having a report of -- the probation department makes a report of character representation on persons in court, they summoned me out there to testify in court. And of course I told them about the things I just told you about all the finding this body and so on and so forth. Finally he was convicted in California, Daneville, California. And I was out there, I went out there and testified. And what a character that guy was. And he was convicted of murder. But not in Frederick County.